photo by: Mugshot courtesy of the KBI Sex Offender registry

James D. Kaberline II is pictured with the Douglas County Judicial and Law Enforcement Center.

An Ozawkie man who was convicted of trading in child pornography and sexual exploitation of a child was granted probation on Friday in Douglas County District Court.

The man, James D. Kaberline II, 42, was originally facing five counts of internet trading of child pornography and four counts of sexual exploitation of a child by possessing media of a child under the age of 18, all felonies. Kaberline lived in Lawrence at the time of the incidents between December of 2021 and February of 2022. In March, he pleaded no contest to one felony count each of internet trading of child pornography and sexual exploitation of a child.

On Friday, Judge Sally Pokorny sentenced Kaberline to 32 months in prison on each of those counts to run concurrently, which she then suspended to 36 months, or three years, of probation. She also ordered him to register as a sex offender for 25 years.

Kaberline has no criminal history that affected his sentencing.

State sentencing guidelines gave Pokorny the discretion to send Kaberline to prison or to grant him probation as long as there was a suitable program in the area to rehabilitate him. She said probation was appropriate because Kaberline had immediately sought therapy after he was charged and his therapist had sent a letter to the court that said Kaberline had little risk of reoffending.

Prior to being sentenced, Kaberline addressed the court and said that since his arrest he felt “deep shame and regret” for his actions. He said that he had been afraid of what might happen to him in the future, but that his own problems couldn’t be compared to what victims of sex crimes endure.

“That is nothing compared to the cruelty experienced by child sex abuse victims,” Kaberline said. “I’m sorry for my part in perpetuating that cruelty.”

Detective Joshua Leitner testified in May 2023 that the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children had flagged a device owned by Kaberline for images of child sexual abuse. Leitner said he took possession of Kaberline’s phone and ran it through a data extraction process that revealed multiple child sex abuse videos and an encrypted file-sharing service in Kaberline’s name. Many of the videos had been shared with other users of the file service while Kaberline was in Lawrence, Leitner testified.